Brand Came Through for This Muggle

Last Friday's release of the final installment of the Harry Potter series rivaled the release of Apple's iphone in terms of hoopla and throngs of devoted fans waiting in line for hours to be one of the first to have it. JK Rowling and Scholastic scored big with 8.3 million copies sold in the first weekend in the U.S. alone.

Amazon made promises to the two million customers who pre-ordered the book to have it to them by 7 p.m. Saturday. The whole thing really was a gamble considering that Amazon was relying upon third parties to execute on the promise. An extraordinary event like the release of "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows" can put a huge strain on a company's infrastructure. Quite thankfully Amazon came through with everything they promised me. My copy of the book was in my grubby little mitts by 10 a.m. Saturday morning (and I finished all 759 pages in 24 hours).

Others weren't so lucky. Read about Kottke's disillusionment. He's not alone. Click here and here to read other's frustration vented.

Regardless of who you want to blame - Amazon or UPS - the Amazon brand took a hit. In my case, I'm singing Amazon's praises (but then I received my book via U.S. Postal Service), but for those who are still waiting, there's no doubt their connection to the brand has been eroded. 

What a Brand!

Across the country, little leaguers with dreams of making it to "the show" have parents and grandparents descending on baseball complexes and sports fields in droves. I can't explain the connection, but there is some weird, symbiotic relationship between watching baseball and eating sunflower seeds. My family is no different. Before we head to the diamonds, we always make the requisite stop at the local c-store to load up on our fav ... GIANTS Dill Pickle Sunflower Seeds.

Last week we made our purchase and headed to the ball park only to find the seeds didn't have the Dill Pickle flavor. On the first mouthful, my husband discovered the bag was full of regular, plain ol' sunflower seeds. His consumer reponse was one of disappointment and irritation at the mislabeled bag. He reacted by placing a call to the company to let them know there was problem.

What has this got to do with marketing ideas that stick you ask? Branding, baby, and this company really gets it!

GIANTS took the opportunity to turn an un-happy customer into a brand loyalist. Just a couple of days after the call to the North Dakota based company, we received a box in the mail with not only a replacement bag of Dill Pickle seeds, but also free bags of GIANTS Salt & Pepper and KC Style BBQ varieties. Included was a letter of apology thanking my husband for alerting them to the problem.

GIANTS took what could have been a negative touch-point and turned it into a positive impression about that company. In this case, GIANTS took the point of contact as an opporunity to build - not erode - their pyschological capital with my family. And they succeeded big time. My husband's response was "I'll never buy another brand of seeds again."

This company rooted themselves in the sacred ground of my husband's heart and mind. Yes, their Dill Pickle product exists in the real world, but the impression the brand made exists in the mind. It's this mindshare that has significant intrinisic value to GIANTS' bottom line.

David Car5on Gets His A55 Kicked

David Carson, one of the high priests of the design world's cult of personality, rose to fame at a time when you could get away with being a prima-donna (the pre-Internet 90s).

Comes now this tasty bit of irony from Be a Design Group that represents an object lesson both for people in the business and for marketers who aren't clear how times have changed: even though Carson helped spur a design revolution that inspired both print and interactive artists, and even though he's hitched his wagon to new media, it's a revoluton in new media that may knock the icon off his pedestal: the pitfalls of social media, or Web 2.0.

[Art by Nate Voss for Be A Design Group, March, 2007 ]

I thought this was brilliant. Of course the comic pretty much speaks for itself. Yes,there are two sides to every story; I'm less interested in Carson's POV than I am what this comic represents: the shift of power from the fat cats to us peons. Check out the post by artist Nate Voss, which gives him -- and me -- cathartic bit of vindication. The comments are hilarious.

Thanks to Nate for persmission posting his comic.

Free coffee anyone?

Starbucks has always been a textbook example of how to build a brand through public relations. Today, they have once again shown why. From 10-noon, Starbucks will host its first-ever "Starbucks Coffee Break" where every one of their 7,500 stores will be giving a free tall coffee to every customer.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Starbucks employees will take coffee to customers who can't make it to the restaurants using mobile-sampling "Venti Vans" and insulated coffee backpacks.

Rather than spend millions of dollars on advertising, Starbucks is spreading their coffee gospel through one of the oldest plays in the public relations handbook: giving away free product. The payoff is in the happy customers and the accompanying media stories, which currently number in the hundreds. What are you doing at your computer? Go get some free coffee!

Hat tip to Starbucks Gossip.

Gethuman Rings Consumers' Bells With an Inside Line on Better Service

Talk about an idea whose time has come: "gethuman," a volunteer-run online advocacy group whose goal is "to improve the quality of customer service and phone support in the US."

This brilliant idea leverages the open forum of the web to convert that agonizing, isolated experience wandering through a company's automated phone system into a public, open retaliation.

The group has plans to out (my term, not theirs, but it just feels so right) the best and worst large US enterprises based on how long it takes to get a human being on the phone and the quality of service they deliver.

According to the groups site, "The most popular part of the gethuman website is the gethuman database of secret phone numbers and codes to get to a human when calling a company for customer service."

Genius. I am totally thrilled.

This connects directly to a great post on Being Reasonable in January over Citi's "Simplicity" card, which trumpets the ease with which you can connect to a real person for support. "If Citi can deliver that service to customers of its new...card,'" wrote Tim Pollack, "why can’t it deliver it to everyone?"

Well if Citi can't, looks like gethuman can.